Ivanhoe native played sports in Minneota; now on airways
Dan Paluch, who played baseball for Minneota/Lincoln HI his senior year of 2011, has been enjoying his time as the news director at Marshall Radio since March.
“I really enjoy it here,” said Paluch, who also ran track for Canby-Minneota/Lincoln HI his senior year. “The best part of the job is the people. I enjoy getting out and meeting people.”
Paluch went to college at South Dakota State University for Broadcast Journalism and was a part-time intern for three years in the metro area. Paluch got married in April 2016 and he and his wife, Casey, moved back to the area last August.
They are currently in the process of building their “dream home” on a piece of land they purchased in the country between Russell and Tyler.
“We are expecting our first child in September,” Paluch remarked, with obvious excitement in his voice.
Casey, a native of Russell, owns and operates a chiropractic clinic in Marshall called Balanced Health. Paluch landed a job with Marshall Radio last September as a board operator and play-by-play sports announcer for the five area high schools they cover besides Marshall; Canby, Lakeview, Minneota, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton.
When the news director position at Marshall Radio (officially called KMHL Broadcasting Company) opened after Aaron Ziemer left to pursue other interests, Paluch, 25, applied for the job.
“Aaron was only 24 years old when he got the job as news director and he was here 20 years,” said Paluch. “I don’t think they were unsure of whether or not I could handle the job.
I was coming in with some experience already.” Paluch continues to be the area play-by-play man, while Ryan Rohlik has been a longtime play-by-play man for the Marshall prep teams, as well as the Southwest Minnesota State University teams. But Paluch now has additional duties as news director.
“The first thing I do each morning is to gather all the sports information first,” he explained. “I come in around 5:45 a.m. and going on the air at 6:40 a.m.”
“Last night (Thursday) with all the high school football games, I gathered all the scores that night.”
“We broadcast three of the games on our stations, so I took clips from each of those games and put that together with the other information.”
Marshall Radio has one AM station, KMHL 1400; and four FM stations; KKCK 99.7, KARL 105.1, KARZ 107.5, and KNSG 94.7.
“A vision I had as news director is to focus more on the area news and stories of interest, not just Marshall,” Paluch said.
“I’d like to go out into the communities and talk to people and listen to their stories and then tell about them.”
Paluch’s colleague, KMHL Morning Show host and sports broadcaster Heath Radke said Paluch has been an asset to the company.
“It’s always nice to have a local that has a passion for telling the story of this area,” said Radke.
“(Paluch) has really taken to going to the towns outside of Marshall to get first-hand accounts of things like the Red Pine Wind Project in Ivanhoe or the school adding a solar array in Tracy, and the passing of the school referendum in Minneota.”
Paluch works six days a week at the station, although he is able to cut the day short on Saturday. Paluch is currently assisting the station with hiring part-time college students and others as interns by interviewing and seeking the right people for the job.